Humans have engaged in agriculture for millennia, and have developed a wide array of practices and products to achieve improved efficiency (i.e., greater production per cost or effort expended). For example, mechanically disturbing soil (“tilling” or “plowing”) loosens the soil and improves plant-root penetration, while fertilization focuses on adding nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) to the soil so that they will be available to growing plants. Many prior-art practices and materials yield significant (but often declining) returns in productivity. Eventually, a greater investment of time, energy or materials, or even entirely different techniques, may be required to maintain accustomed yields.
On the other hand, land that is undisturbed, unprocessed and unaugmented, may nevertheless support a thriving complement of plant life from season to season, dependent principally on natural conditions such as amount of sunlight and rainfall or other water sources. In such a natural system, the variety of plant life provides numerous benefits, such as food and habitat for insects and other animals, processing of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and erosion control. However, once such a system is disturbed, it often takes years or decades to restore the prior balance.
Owners and stewards of land often wish to (re-)establish a “natural,” self-perpetuating floral ecosystem on a parcel that has been disrupted by fire, flood, or development such as mining, construction or grading. Current practices include removing and storing the topsoil of an area that will be affected, and replacing the topsoil later (e.g., after construction); or applying compost or fertilizer to attempt to restart plant growth. These approaches are often expensive, and sometimes fail to work on the first few attempts. Techniques and materials to accomplish revegetation with reduced recurring effort or investment may be of value in this field.